Yorkshire seconds cruise to victory

One of the highlights of the game was regular cricket watcher John Taplin passing on words of wisdom to the England Under 18 hockey squad training nearby

Posted by Tony Hutton

Yorkshire 2nd XI v MCC Young Cricketers (Weetwood) - day three.

Yorkshire's last wicket pair added a few more runs this morning and set MCC the not too challenging target of 237 to win. A good crowd had gathered in fine weather, which improved as the day went on. Most of us anticipated a good day's cricket with possibly a close finish around tea time.

However our hopes were very soon dashed when the visitors slumped to 0 for 2 and then 7-3 to the opening spell from Wardlaw (two wickets) and Hannon-Dolby (one).
There was a brief recovery by Hose (23) and Ballard before Hose gave Brophy his third catch behind the stumps, again off Wardlaw. Clarke and Marsh (we think the son of former Kent wicket keeper Steve Marsh) both followed quickly and at lunch the score was 90-6 with Ballard still there.

At this point many of the spectators left for pastures new - mainly to Headingley where the final of the Greyfox Trophy for club sides of over fifties was taking place at 1 p.m. However the game at Weetwood did last for another hour or so, and when Ballard was out for a grafting top score of 44, this time caught Wardlaw bowled Jackson, number nine Dobb took up the challenge.

He hit a quick 35 not out of only 17 balls with five fours and a six, but it was all in vain as Wardlaw and Randhawa finished off the tail and Yorkshire had won by 74 runs mid way through the afternoon, when of course the weather was at it's best.

Wardlaw took the brunt of Dobb's assault and in the end his five wickets cost him 82 runs off only eleven overs. Randhawa had figures of 2-16 and all the other bowlers had one wicket each. So a useful work out for some of Yorkshire's youngsters, but it has to be said not much of performance from many of the visitors' side.
The chief exception being the South African Chad Barrett with 63 in the first innings and splendid figures of 5-35 in Yorkshire's second innings.

Finally thanks to John Winn for his exclusive revelation of the day one score at Leicester, no mention in the press or on either of the county websites although Surrey did at least have a preview of the game. All that remains now is what might be a long wait to discover the result of the game today.

Also a further word of caution for those planning to visit the two school finals at New Rover CC next Monday and Thursday. Despite YCB website saying Monday's game starts at 1.30 I have received an e-mail from the New Rover secretary which says that both games are due to start at 12 noon.